The Evolution will not be televised
Out of context: Reply #19
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From an interview with Dr. Aw Swee-Eng:
Interviewer:
"A biochemist called Sidney Fox heated up some dry amino acids which caused them to link together into small chains, then dropped them in some water and some little round things formed that got people excited because they looked like cells—and some of them even looked like they were dividing. He called them ‘protocells.’"Dr. Swee-Eng:
"This is a misnomer—they are nothing to do with cells at all. They look like cells because they are round, but there are many round things which are not cells."Interviewer:
"Like soap bubbles?"Dr. Swee-Eng:
"Yes, like soap bubbles, or things like that."Interviewer:
"Or blobs of fat on your chicken soup? They can also ‘divide,’ from simple surface tension, for example."Dr. Swee-Eng:
"Yes, these alleged ‘protocells’ could be compared to something like that. Oparin, the famous Russian origin-of-life theorist, created what we call coacervates, which also form a round structure. He placed certain enzymes within this coacervate, and these ‘protocells’ (as they like to think they were) carried out certain automatic reactions. The reaction products were released out through this membrane into the surrounding medium, and because of simple physico-chemical factors things flowed in and out. This only superficially mimicked a cell. You could blow up a cellophane balloon and put in the enzyme and get the same reaction. It is an entirely man-made, terribly simplified system, nothing at all in comparison to a cell."